I had high hope for the USA Pavilion as we were approaching the big building at the southwest corner of the big complex. I couldn’t help but wondered that the Chinese government stuck USA Pavilion at this corner far away from the entrance for a reason. They probably purposely located USA Pavilion here so it was away from where the actions were near the Chinese Pavilion.

As I entered the building with many other people, I thought I would see examples of advance technologies. I would see medical researches that improve people’s quality of life and save people’s lives. I thought I would see an image of a rich nation that helped other troubled countries in the world. I thought I would see the superior military power that contributed to the world peace. I thought that I would see a Wall Street that epitomize the glory of capitalism. I thought that I would see a country that prided itself for exporting democracy to the rest of the world. I thought I would see the history of a strong nation that protect human rights as they preached to every leaders in the world who came to visit this nation.

The staff at the US Pavilion dressed up to make them looked funny. But why?

A chance to promote American companies at the staging area. .

Like I said that I had high hope for this short visit.

As we strolled into a staging area of the building with about 200 hundred other visitors, we were told in broken Chinese that our group was the last group ever to visit the USA Pavilion. And the door was closed for the last time. Tomorrow these volunteers would go back to where they came from in the United States. A sense of farewell permeated in the air and they told us that they had a good time here in Shanghai and they loved this country and its people.

There was a few words of welcome and explanation of what we would see in the next building. Then the doors opened and we were rushed into an open area for a 10 to 15 minutes of video.

I have to say that I was totally disappointed and disgusted by what I saw. The video depicted a group of people of many ethnicities in an inner city setting putting their efforts together to rebuild a small corner of their community. Of course, it was the tireless pursuit of a small girl who inspired other people to volunteer their money and effort. Flowers were planted. Trees were put in to provide shades. Grass was put in to symbolize green initiative has taken root here. A small piece of waste land was transformed into a small park right in front of our eyes. Everyone was happy as if for a moment everyone felt like they belong to a big happy family under the sky. There was peace. There was harmony. There was happiness in the air.

One big family under the sky.

But the reality was far from what was presented in the short video. The inner city of any big city in the United States was filled with drugs, homeless people, rundown neighborhoods, kids skipping school, people with no jobs, crime and murders. In 30+ years I was in the United States, I have never heard people working together to transform anything with government grants. There was no little girls planting flowers in any corner of a city using her own money. The whole thing was a big lie. It was put together by liberals who cared more about making people feel good than presenting a true picture of what the United States was about.

Wasteful to the nth degree! Aggressive and in other countries’ faces all the time! Butt in other countries’ business and changed their governments to enhance America’s interests. Promote democracy as if it is the panacea for world peace. Pushes human rights to other countries but completely neglects areas in Africa where it needs the most.

Other areas of human rights violation were conveniently swept under the rug by the very same liberals who put the video show together: woman’s rights in Muslim countries and discrimination against blacks, Latinos and Asians in the US by white people in America’s inner cities and work places.

I am sorry to say that the America I knew was no where close to what the video was trying to project.I felt cheated. I totally wasted my time there.

The other half of the room had short films and displays which also didn’t tell the story of what America really is. it merely used the opportunities to promote American companies such as GE, United technologies, Citibank, P&G, etc.

Chevron was well represented at USA Pavilion. Not ExxonMobil though. I wonder why. Valdez, maybe?

Well, all I can say was I was too naive to the point of being foolish.

The highlight of the tour was the sales of cowboy hats at ¥10 a piece, a deep discount from ¥50. I didn’t think that they wanted to ship all these unsold hats back to the US. They probably got them from China anyway.

Liquidation sales!

Well, I survived the Shanghai World Expo and all we got was a lousy bag from Turkey Pavilion.

Bamboo was also used in the interior and ceiling of the building. The image of a 观音 "guan1 yin1" was reflected in the indoor pool along with lotus flowers and lotus plants. It projected a calm and peaceful feeling to tis visitors.Nicely done on a budget.

Many people carried folding step stool with them as they waited in line to see their favorite pavilions.

Creative use of lighting gave Iceland Pavilion a beautiful view in the night.

Turkey Pavilion in the evening. Turkey called itself "The Cradle of the Civilizations."

口氣還不小呢﹗”kou3 qi4 hai2 bu1 xiao3 ne1.” What a claim!

People were more interested in Turkish ice cream than the display inside the building.

People line-up waiting for their turn for ice cream at Turkey Pavilion

A free bag from Turkey Pavilion made her smile like a child. 土耳其 "tu2 er3 qi1" is Chinese for Turkey.

法国菜菜单 "fa3 guo2 cai4 cai4 dan1" Menu du jour at french Pavilion.

prix fixe dinner for ¥598 or ¥698. Your choice. That’s about $100 USD. French perfume sold for ¥188. There was a line and the wait was about 30 minutes.

Can you make out the word on the inside of the huge wall? It was 福 "fu2", bliss or blessing.

Many people waiting in line to get their Expo passport stamped at various country pavilions.

A trophy to take home.

several small African nations shared one building. It stressed that humanity started from Africa.

天下一家 "tian1 xia4 yi1 jia1" The whole world is one big happy family.

Sorry, I added the word “happy” in there.The catchy slogan didn’t say anything whether we are a happy family or not though.

Knowing what have happened in the world, the killings, the war and endless conflicts stemmed from religion, political differences and territory dispute, etc., made you wonder what this “make-you-feel-good” slogan meant. Well, for a moment, we’d pretend that the family was a happy one.

Peru Pavilion

Columbia Pavilion

Brasil Pavilion

While we were touring the complex in the evening, the World Expo closing ceremony took place in that flying saucer-shaped building. There were many big screen TV all over the complex and we could see what was taking place if we wanted to.

The last day and last evening of Shanghai World Expo: 10-31-2010 at 9:11 pm. Time to say goodbye.

Shanghai World Expo Mascots on the TV.

We saw them hosting big programs on Chinese TV all the time .

Big stage and hundreds of people are common for many Chinese entertainment programs.

The most unique building of them all was the South Korean Pavilion. The exterior of the building looked like long white walls with irregular holes and flaps of different shapes on them. The under side of these walls have thousands of colored Korean characters on them.

It was very creative, beautiful with no other building looked like it at all.

A view from inside of the outer shell of the building. As far as I can tell, these are Korean characters.

Qatar - I had some contact with engineers from Qatar. Mobil worked with Qatar because of its huge condensate reservoirs. Exxon bought Mobil because in part of Mobil's access to this field. of

It should have been gas condensate. But many people do not knw what that is, hence, natural gas instead.

Mobil operated Ras Laffan and had long term contracts with Korea and japan. Before ras laffan, Mobil operated Arun gas condensate field in Indonesia which supplied natural gas liquids to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea and Japan. Back then at the hay days of Arun, almost 1/4 of Mobil's annual profit came from Arun. Production from Arun has been down drastically. Ras Laffan came just in time for Mobil and now Exxon Mobil.

Iran Pavilion

Saw this near the entrance of Iran Pavilion. The Chinese characters read as follows:

“a1 dan1 zi3 sun1 jie1 xiong1 di4 ,

xiong1 di4 you1 ru1 shou3 zu1 qing1,

zhao4 wu4 zhi1 chu1 ben1 yi1 ti3,

yi1 zhi1 luo3 bin4 ran3 quan2 shen1.”

His picture greets every visitor to the Iran Pavilion.

Very beautiful art work on display.

Carpet for royal families. To pquality. Very beautiful. Took years to finish.

Another example of top quality carpet for the royal families.

好大的口气! "hao3 da4 de1 kou3 qi4"

A Chinese girl dressed in Iraian custume. She was a tour guide.

Would you like this carpet for your home? You could get it for a cool ¥70,000.

If you think this one is too expensive, try the next one instead:

A closer look of what you are getting. Zoom in on the previous picture to find out the price tag. You might need to delay your retirement to afford it though. It took a mere 20 years to complete.